Fabric tents are generally provided with an open doorway and a side wall whereupon a fabric door is applied. Although the fabric door can be appended to the tent fabric by any one of a number of well-known means, it is quite commonplace to attach the door to the fabric tent body by one or more zipper arrangements. In addition, oftentimes, tents are provided with a two-ply door having air venting fabric as a first ply and a waterproof fabric as a second ply. Regardless of these details of construction, all such doors are characteristically limited as to orientations which the door can assume as it is opened.
Perhaps the most relevant teaching regarding the present invention can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,765,584. The '584 patent teaches a fabric tent having a two-ply door and a "continuous" zipper which defines a C-shaped arcuate path. A pair of zipper slides are mounted on the zipper path such that a pair of consecutively positioned zipper slides unzips the waterproof fabric to allow ventilation through the air-venting fabric when the pair slides towards one another while the waterproof fabric is zipped closed when the pair slides away from each other.
Although the '584 patent offers a certain degree of flexibility, the zipper employed by this reference is not continuous. As such, the tent door is limited in the orientations it can assume. For example, reference is made to FIG. 1 which depicts an embodiment shown in the '584 patent. When zipper slides 47a and 47b are mounted on zipper 41, the door 40 can be opened and closed. Specifically, when the zipper slides 47a and 47b are moved to the opposite tips of the C-shaped arcuate path, the tent door is in a closed position. A motion of the zipper slide 47a in a clockwise direction or a motion of zipper slide 47b in a counter-clockwise direction unzips tent door 40. Conversely, a motion of the zipper slide 47a in a counter-clockwise direction or a motion of the zipper slide 47b in a clockwise direction closes the tent door 40. However, the tent door cannot be fully stashed away for there is a gap between the ends of the zipper where sliders 47a and 47b reside in FIG. 1. Further, door 40, in the illustration made herein, can only open to the left. In the event that it would be more convenient or practical to open the door to the right, the configuration of FIG. 1 would prove inadequate. Finally, as noted previously, if door 40 was to be stashed away, it could not fully be withdrawn from the tent opening in which it resides for the gap between sliders 47a and 47b cannot traverse the open area not occupied by zipper 41. It is deemed to be desirable to be able to join the sliders together to virtually completely withdraw tent door 40 from the tent opening particularly to enhance ventilation and in the event that large objects which have a difficulty in clearing the tent opening must be brought into or withdrawn from the tent's interior volume.
It is thus an object of the present invention to provide a tent which experiences none of the drawbacks as discussed above which are characteristic of prior designs. These and further objects will be more readily appreciated when considering the following disclosure and appended claims.